1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and more specifically to a computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for creating and utilizing a virtual switch in a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, in Fibre Channel (FC) networks, end ports are connected to one and only one switch. If the switch that an end port is connected to fails, the port becomes inaccessible. If a customer wants an end point to remain operational in the face of a switch failure, the customer may use multiple end ports per end point and redundant switch topologies to enable multiple paths between end points. This type of solution is fully redundant.
However, if a customer does not want to invest in a fully redundant fabric, the customer may use redundancy in intermediary switches and a fully interconnected topology. In this type of solution a failure to an intermediary switch may be tolerated, though it may take a long time for the switch failure to be detected and the routing paths on the FC fabric to be modified. This type of solution is a redundant intermediary switch solution.